T&T’s George Bovell III made it four silver medals in a row when he finished behind USA’s Anthony Ervin for the second straight week in the men’s 50 metres final at the Doha, Qatar-Leg of the FINA/Arena Swimming Short Course World Cup at the Hamad Aquatic Centre, yesterday.
Bovell, who was seventh in the same event at the London Olympic Games sped home in 21.06 seconds, just behind Ervin who splashed to gold in 21.02 second while Australians Kyle Richardson got bronze in 21.54 seconds.
Ironically, the trio also finished 1-2-3 at the Dubia, United Arab Emirates leg of the World Cup on Wednesday, with Ervin winning in 21.18 seconds, followed by Bovell (21.23) and Richardson (21.58).
The other finishers in yesterday’s 50m freestyle final were South African Roland Schoeman (21.55), Finland’s Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (21.61), Australian Kenneth To (21.66), New Zealand’s Cameron Simpson (21.83) and Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov (21.87).
In the morning session, Ervin (21.36) also got the better of the 29-year-old Bovell (21.62) in the third of four heats for the top two times in the preliminaries while Richardson was third in the heat in 21.85 followed by China’s Wenjie Pu (22.89), Kuwait’s Mohammed Madouh (23.56), Bahrain’s Omar Al-Maliki (23.97), Oman’s Nawaf Al-Qasmi (25.12) and United Arab Emirates’ Abdulla Naseib (25.66).
In addition to Ervin and Bovell, Schoeman (21.70) and To (21.70) were the top qualifiers from heat two while Govorov (22.03) and Liukkonen (22.10) qualified from heat four, and Simpson (22.08), the lone swimmer from heat two.
On Saturday, Bovell also earned a second straight silver medal in the men’s 100 metres individual in a new national record and lifetime best of 51.87 seconds.
To (51.58), took gold while Darian Townsend got bronze in 52.76 seconds, as the trio finished in the same positions as they did in Dubai as well.
Fourth was Japan’s Kosuke Hagino (52.86), followed by Australian Tommaso D’Orsogna (53.13), Hungary’s Laszlo Czech (53.23), Sweden’s Simon Sjoedin (53.87) and China’s Yu Zhang (55.30).
Earlier in the morning, Bovell III was the top qualifier in the second of three heats in 52.97 seconds followed by Hagino 53.88, Omar Pinzon (56.07), United Arab Emirates’ Obaid Al Jasmi (58.94), Oman’s Aiman Al Kulaibi (1:01.53) and Bahrain’s Khaled Ismael (1:07.30) while the duo of Georgios Syrianos of Greece and India’s Agnishwar Jayaprakash did not start.
The time swam by Bovell was also the fastest qualifying time overall followed by Hagino, To (54.10), Sjoedin (54.17), D’Orsogna (54.26), Czech (54.29), Townsend (54.48) and Zhang (55.28)
Last week at the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex, Swimming Pool, in Dubai, UAE, Bovell got silver in the 100m IM in 52.19 seconds behind To (51.43) while Townsend took bronze in 52.60.
Next up for the 2004 Olympic bronze medal winner is the Stockholm, Sweden leg of the World Cup (October 13-14) followed by stops in Moscow, Russia October 17-18; Berlin, Germany, October 20-21; Beijing, China (November 2-3); Tokyo, Japan (November 6-7) and Singapore, November 10-11.
-Nigel Simon
Source: www.guardian.co.tt